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NAPBL - North American Professional Basketball League (Take 2)


GeoTheo

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This is a basketball league that I started as a 5th grader in 1994. In the 20 years since I started its had a few different names, taken many forms and slipped in and out of my conciseness. I had a thread going a while back, but I became a father a year-and-half ago so I have not been able to update in the past 2 years. I have had a few opportunities to freshen up a lot of my work and add some more. I have completed 25 primary logos and I have 3 to complete, I was hoping to get some help on improving what's done and creating the remaining 3. Seeing how this is the 20th season of the league I would really like to finish it.

If you followed the original thread some of the team names and colors have changed to better reflect the league history. The 28 teams for the 2013-14 Season are:

Western Conference

Pacific Division

Calgary (Need a Name), Edmonton (Need a Name), Las Vegas Gamblers, San Diego Defenders, San Francisco Earthquakes, Seattle Jets, and Vancouver Mounties

Southwest Division

Austin Outlaws, Guadalajara (Need a Name), Fort Worth Wranglers, Kansas City Explorers, Toreros de Mexico, D.F., Montañeses de Monterrey, and Saint Louis Steamers

Eastern Conference

Southeast Division

Baltimore BlueClaws, Nashville Troubadours, Jacksonville Generals, Louisville Racers, Norfolk Navigators, Richmond Rebels, and Tampa Tropics

Northeast Division

Columbus Commanders, Chicago Chiefs, Hartford Colonials, Montreal Indépendants, New York City Imperials, Pittsburgh Barons, and Providence Rens

11 of the 28 teams this season can be traced back to original founding teams

I am not going to post all 20 but I created maps for all 20 seasons of League to illustrate its logo history. Here is the map for the 2013-14 Season

2013-14_zpsff7f50a6.png

And here are the first 5 logos in alphabetical order

Austin Outlaws, A founding member in 1994 originally known as the Texas Lonestars

AUSTIN_zpsf8ba2b9c.png

Baltimore BlueClaws: Joined the League as an expansion team in 2008

BALTIMORE_zpsc4623189.png

Chicago Chiefs: A founding member in 1994, originally the Chicago Blazers

CHICAGO_zpsbd36e5b0.png

Columbus Commanders: A founding member in 1994, originally located in Washington, D.C. and called the Washington Eagles, relocated to Columbus, OH in 2009

COLUMBUS_zpsdf96f0fb.png

Fort Worth Wranglers: Joined the League as an expansion team in 2004 as Oklahoma City Oilers, relocated to Fort Worth, TX in 2008

FORTHWORTH_zps652d2cb5.png

I would really appreciate any comments you have, thanks for looking.

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Put a cowboy hat on Austin, replace the ball with a C on Chicago, and either incorporate the basketball pattern on the Crab's shell or remove it completely on Baltimore. May I ask what a "Ren" is?

@loganaweaver - Twitter / @loganaweaver - Instagram / Nike Vapor Untouchable Football Template  / Logan's Logos

 

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Thanks for the comments I really appreciate them. I would really appreciate some more.

These are really cool, but I'd tone down the emphasis on the basketball.

Yes, they are all very basketball heavy, but that's how I like them.

Put a cowboy hat on Austin, replace the ball with a C on Chicago, and either incorporate the basketball pattern on the Crab's shell or remove it completely on Baltimore. May I ask what a "Ren" is?

I've thought about the "C" at the center of the Chiefs logo, but I'm afraid it would be too similar to the Chicago Fire. Rens is short for Renaissance, one of Providence's nicknames is the Renaissance City.

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These are really cool, but I'd tone down the emphasis on the basketball.

To be fair, most NBAlogos have a basketball in them

It is like 70 percent ot NBA logos with basketballs and that's just Geo's style to put emphasis on the basketball. Something about your logos have always given me an ABA type feel, which I like. I have tried to incorporate basketballs in my own experience making basketball logos but it does limit the other design elements somewhat and can leave a logo cluttered.

Anyway, some of your fonts could be changed. New fonts would make these feel more modern and if in doubt, more spacing between letters helps keep the logo clean. For example, in the Commanders, the letter outlines all touch. Since they are standing outside the logo and not within a box of some kind, it would look better if they didn't look all crammed and touch.

Also, I would take out the light blue outline around the ball too in the Commanders.

Look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

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I still think that the Richmond team should have less-obvious name than the Rebels. Rebels seems to be overdone, imo.

Thanks for the comment, I completely agree Rebels is overdone, and its probably not the most P.C. name either. I debated using it for a long time, and finally just went with it because its what I wanted to use.

These are really cool, but I'd tone down the emphasis on the basketball.

To be fair, most NBAlogos have a basketball in them

It is like 70 percent ot NBA logos with basketballs and that's just Geo's style to put emphasis on the basketball. Something about your logos have always given me an ABA type feel, which I like. I have tried to incorporate basketballs in my own experience making basketball logos but it does limit the other design elements somewhat and can leave a logo cluttered.

Anyway, some of your fonts could be changed. New fonts would make these feel more modern and if in doubt, more spacing between letters helps keep the logo clean. For example, in the Commanders, the letter outlines all touch. Since they are standing outside the logo and not within a box of some kind, it would look better if they didn't look all crammed and touch.

Also, I would take out the light blue outline around the ball too in the Commanders.

Look forward to seeing what else you come up with.

Thanks for the comments Jaha, I always take yours more seriously considering your body of work. I've always had a love for logos that use symbols from their sports. Sometimes i'm afraid I'm trying to cram a basketball into a design, but its also what I like. Right now I'm at 96% with balls, even if I leave a ball out of the last 3 teams I'll still be at 85%. I'd like to incorporate other basketball symbols: hoops, nets, backboards etc. I had a team Raleigh that was contracted before this season that used a net.

I'll see what I can do on the fonts, I struggle even more with wordmarks than I do design. I'd really like to clean up Baltimore's wordmark, its pretty sloppy and the more I look at it the less OK I am with it. I also tend to space letterscloser together in an attempt to make them look taller because I'm too lazy to properly edit them.

Anyway, here are the next 5 in alphabetical order:

Hartford Colonials: A 2004 expansion team changed there name from Connecticut Colonials to Hartford Colonials in 2007

HARTFORD_zps08cf9cda.png

Jacksonville Generals: A founding member in 1994, originally called the Florida Fireballs until 2007 when the took their current moniker. I should note that the iconic image of Jackson here is completely stolen from the City of Jacksonville's flag.

JACKSONVILLE_zps204ee600.png

Kansas City Explorers: A 2004 expansion team known as the Kansas City Cyclones, adopted current name in 2007. Another case where spreading letters apart wouldn't hurt.

KANSASCITY_zpsbf152f1e.png

Las Vegas Gamblers: A founding member in 1994, known as the Las Vegas Gamblers from 1994-1996, from 1996-2007 they were the Las Vegas High-Rollers, and in 2007 they returned to their original moniker. I keep thinking about updating this, but I love it in spite of its many flaws.

LASVEGAS_zpsb28dde9a.png

Louisville Racers: A founding member in 1994, originally in Indianapolis until they moved to Louisville in 2007 and kept their original moniker. The horse and rider need to be cleaned up, unfortunately I must not of saved the file, and therefore I need to redraw the whole thing, d'oh!

LOUISVILLE_zps579f3b18.png

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Lose the bevel and basketball from the LV logo, and lose the basketball from Louisville. It looks outta place. These are all pretty good though. Another thing is that it's one thing to steal something from a xity/state flag. It pays tribute to their city/state. It's better than ripping off another teams logo

@loganaweaver - Twitter / @loganaweaver - Instagram / Nike Vapor Untouchable Football Template  / Logan's Logos

 

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The Explorers looks pretty good and has the most potential in this next bunch.

Geo, you mentioned you like taller looking letters in your wordmarks, but I find that shorter or compressed letters look much better than tall letters. If you stretch letters up and down, it leaves the horizontal lines on letters looking too thick. Typically, it looks better when the vertical lines on letters are thicker, or at least the same width as the horizontal lines, otherwise they look top-heavy and too skewed in my mind. But again, the generic fonts is what is holding these back in my mind.

Also, the oval in Louisville... is that intentionally not a perfect oval?

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